Because the commercial use of the Internet, such as for on-line shopping or for the dissemination of advertising material using banner ads, has become so popular, there is great interest in improving and maximizing the effects produced by this Internet application. Web site managers perform research to obtain the reactions of users (web audience ratings) to web page content, and the results provided by the research are reflected in the subject matter published on web pages or in the design of web sites, or are used for One-to-One marketing.
In order to obtain information concerning the web site subjects or themes users are most attracted to, conventional web audience rating research methods include the provision of questionnaires that site visitors are requested to complete, and means for garnering browser access information, including page display time and the number of page visits, that is subsequently used to prepare estimated user reaction profiles. The access information referred to here is the number of HTTP access requests (the number of hits) received by a server, and other information concerning the browsing of specific web contents that are acquired by a client.
According to the web audience rating method according to which users are requested to complete questionnaires, the research is conducted by asking the users for informative entries. Specifically, a questionnaire page, for example, is prepared in advance for inclusion in web contents, so that users can select interesting topics and keywords. Either this, or distributed across web pages are buttons labeled “Interesting” or “Boring” that viewers are invited to select and click on. According to this method, since the information is obtained as a result of informative input operations performed by users, the obtained information can be used to very reliably track user interest trends.
As one type of information that can be obtained by a server for use in web audience rating research, the count of HTTP access requests (the number of hits) issued for web page contents is heavily relied on. When a web page is available and can be read using a web browser, and when an image is embedded in a web page or framing is employed, the number of hits received for the specific page is counted. In this case, a web server does not accept an HTTP access request when it is moving from one set of web page contents to another.
According to this method, all the content (resource) accesses initiated by a user can be recorded. And when this data is combined with information concerning the resource type (HTML files, images, etc.) involved, the length of time the user spent viewing the predetermined web contents can be estimated.
Since a client can monitor the state of a window that is displayed by a web browser, a client is able to obtain more detailed information than is a server. For example, a client can measure the display time for each page, and for windows can record and examine all changes in location and all sizes and resolutions used for focusing, while at the same time recording keywords selected by a user's manipulation of a data entry device. Additionally, the browsing history of a user can be recorded, without it being limited to a specific web site. Based on the information obtained by employing such a method, user interest trends can, to a degree, be estimated.
In addition, available for use for research are the search engines that users employ to obtain desired information. When using a search engine, a user enters a keyword and clicks on a start button or presses enter, and the search engine then scans a number of web pages for the keyword. Subsequently, if web pages containing the keyword are found, the search engine displays them in a listing. For this process, however, because of the huge number of web pages that are available, it is important that some restriction be applied that can appropriately reduce the number of pages scanned. As a technique for accomplishing this, of the pages listed as a result of one search a user selects a new keyword from a page that best matches his or her interest, and uses the new keyword to initiate another search. In this case, by using a keyword extracted from a document that the user selected as the one that most nearly matched the purpose of the search, the search conditions are automatically changed. Thus, the trend corresponding to of the user's interest will be reflected in the search results. In this case, a keyword that is employed is one that is representative of the entire page that is selected.